Chicken Pillows

2 packages crescent rolls

Diced, cooked chicken (1 large chicken breast or 2 smaller)

8 oz cream cheese or cream cheese w/chives

4 tablespoons butter, melted

Herb Stuffing Mix

Take 2 crescent roll triangles, seal perforations and roll out so that it makes one larger rectangle. Combine chicken and cream cheese and spoon mixture into the crescent rolls. Seal edges, dip in butter, roll in crushed Pepperidge farm herb stuffing mix. Bake at 400 for 20 min. Top with gravy. (Canned or envelope gravy mix).

*Freezer Adaptation*

Make as directed, freeze before baking. Let thaw in fridge the morning of.

Chicken Cream Cheese Enchiladas

I saw this recipe over at Sister's Cafe and knew I had to try it because Jake loves anything with cream cheese, and this was no exception. I believe his exact review was that this was "freakin' amazing". I love reviews like that. Makes the hard work worth it! What's even bette,r is that this makes a good freezer meal which I am slowly building up a supply of in preparation for baby #2 due in April. Gotta love freezer meals for those days when you just don't feel like cooking or have no idea what to make. It makes me SO glad for the nesting instinct that is in full force right now so I can get stuff like this done.

Ingredients:

1 c. diced bell pepper, whatever color you like or a mixture of what you may have on hand

¾ c. onion, chopped (can also add celery to complete the ¾ c.)

2 Tb butter

ENCHILADA SAUCE:

1 15-oz can tomato sauce

1 c. chicken stock (water and 1 tsp bouillon granules (or 1 cube) works great)

1-2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp each cumin, sugar, and salt

¼ tsp pepper

FILLING:

1/3 c. half and half (or milk, for a lighter version)

1 (8-oz) pkg cream cheese (I always use Neufchatel cheese)

3 c. cooked chicken, diced

½ tsp salt

1 c. grated cheese

8-12 flour tortillas (I use 10)

Sauté onion and pepper in butter. Remove to a bowl and set aside. Heat tomato sauce, chicken stock, chili powder, cumin, sugar, salt and pepper; simmer 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare filling: Add half and half & cream cheese to the cooked chicken, sautéed onion and bell pepper (and celery, if desired), and salt. Dip tortilla in enchilada sauce mixture and spoon ¼ c. chicken filling into each tortilla. Roll up and place seam side down in a lightly greased 9x13 pan. Cover with remaining tomato sauce. Cover with foil. At this point you may freeze the pan. Otherwise, bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Remove foil and sprinkle with 1 cup cheese. Bake 5 more minutes.

Would be really yummy with some guac on top too!

(Instead of putting all ten of the tortillas in a 9x13 dish, put five in a 8x8 pan and the other five in another 8x8 pan. Freeze one of them for a later dinner.

When baking a frozen pan of enchiladas, remove the pan from the freezer, leave one layer of foil on top, and place in the oven (no need to preheat). Set the oven to 350° and bake for about 40-45 minutes or so, or until it is hot in the middle. Then add cheese and bake until it is melted on top.)

Crockpot Salsa Chicken

Ingredients:

4-5 frozen or thawed chicken breasts
1 jar salsa (any kind - use what you like)
1 can green enchilada sauce
1 can black beans, drained
1 can corn, drained

Cook in Crockpot for 4-5 hours on low. You can put in taco shells or on top of rice.

Cinnamon Rolls (Cousin Heidi's version)

I don't know why, but I am on a cinnamon kick lately! I've been craving it for the past week, made Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread a few days ago and my mom and I made this today at our mini Mantua Getaway. My cousin's wife Heidi shared this link to her blog, Tasty Sensations, with me and I'm glad I tried it! Thanks Heidi!

Cinnamon Rolls

INGREDIENTS
1 cup warm milk

2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup butter (slightly salted), melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 tsp yeast

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 3/4 TBS ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

1 (4 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS
Put warm milk and yeast in bowl to bubble for 5 min. Scramble eggs. Place in bowl with remaining ingredients, add yeast mixture. Mix all together, knead well (5-10 min) and let rise in bowl once. After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.

Roll dough into a 16x21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls - we suggest using floss to make 12 equal rolls . Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes - we suggest covering them with tin foil halfway through to prevent overbrowning. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Mexican Meat Cups

This is one of the recipes that was a favorite growing up. I remember always LOVING when my mom would make these. Now that I'm married, I'm glad Jake likes them just as much as I do. The meat filling makes kind of a lot for our family of 3, so I can either half the recipe or freeze the other half that we don't eat. (I love finding good freezer meals, too. :)

Ingredients:

1 can flaky refrigerator biscuits

1 cup shredded cheese

1 lb. ground beef, brown and drain

½ cup ketchup & ½ cup barbeque sauce, mixed together

1 can corn (opt.)

Place each biscuit in a muffin cup. Press dough to cover bottom and sides, forming a ½ inch rim. Put about 1 T. of cheese into each cup. Combine ground beef, ketchup-barbeque sauce mixture and corn. Spoon into biscuit. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes or until biscuits are deep golden brown. Cover tops with shredded cheese during the last 5 minutes.

*Freezer option: Freeze the filling separate from the biscuits. Take out the night before, or the morning of, to thaw. Then assemble and bake as normal.

Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

Here is yet another one of the Sisters Cafe recipes. Whitney is getting to be such a fun age and she was so cute helping me make this today. Her favorite part about baking is adding the "eggies", so she was a little bummed that we didn't add any to this recipe, but she liked checking on the dough to watch how big it was getting.

Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

1 cup warm milk
1 Tbsp of instant yeast
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp shortening
1 cup warm water
Flour (approx 5 cups total)

2/3 cup raisins

Mix powdered milk, yeast, salt, sugar, and shortening in the bowl of a mixer. Add warm water. Add about 1.5 to 2 cups flour and beat until well mixed. Add flour slowly until dough comes away clean from the edge of the mixing bowl. Add one cup raisins. Allow to knead for 5 more minutes. Do not add too much flour. Cover with greased plastic and allow dough to rise. Once it has doubled in size, divide into 2 parts. Roll out each half of dough into a small rectangle and spray lightly with water (or get hands wet and lightly rub surface of dough - the idea is to barely moisten the dough.) Sprinkle with cinnamon - depending on how much you like! Roll up lengthwise, pinching together seam and tucking in the ends to form a log. Place each log into a greased loaf pan and raise until the size of a bread loaf. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 2 loaves.

Chicken Pot Pie

2 cans cream of potato soup

1 can Veg-all (I also add some frozen mixed veggies. The more veggies, the better in my opinion)

2 cups diced chicken (1 large breast or 2 smaller)

1/2 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon thyme

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Pour into frozen pie crust*. Stab with fork several times. Bake at 350 for about 40-45 minutes, or until crust turns golden brown.

*Can use 2 regular pie crusts to fill 2 smaller pies, or deep dish on the bottom topped with the regular size for 1 larger pie. The filling recipe is enough for 2 smaller pies or 1 large pie.

**Freezing directions: prepare filling as directed but freeze separately from the crusts. Take out of the freezer to thaw the night before or the morning of then pour into crusts and bake as directed.

Lemon Carrots

This is another winner from Momma Winegar's Recipes. I was assigned the vegetable for this weeks Sunday dinner (main course, Swiss Chicken....mmmmmm :) )and remembered this gem. Even the babies liked them!

Cook a 3 lb bag of carrots, steamed or boiled in about an inch of water for 20 minutes or until tender.

In a sauce pan, melt:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (i just used the zest of 1 whole lemon)

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Add glaze to the cooked carrots. Cook on low heat, turning until carrots are glazed.

Taco Soup

Oh, bless this soup. It is so easy! All you have to do is brown some beef, open a bunch of cans, and turn on a crockpot in the morning and you have a yummy yummy dinner 6-8 hours later that makes a lot, and is great as leftovers too! It came in real handy today too because what I had originally planned for dinner tonight (Cranberry Pork with Red Potatoes) wasn't happening because it turns out you need pork for that recipe. Weird. I was SO glad that I had halved the Sloppy Joe recipe on Wednesday because then I already had a 1/2 lb of ground beef browned and all ready to go this morning when plan A didn't work out. It's like it was meant to be!

TACO SOUP

1 lb hamburger
chopped onion (brown with hamburger)
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can beef broth
2 cans cream of potato soup
2 cans kidney or chili beans, drained and rinsed
1 can or 2 small cans tomato sauce
1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
1 1/2 cup chopped celery*
1 1/2 cup chopped carrots*
1 can corn

Cook all day on low in a large crock pot or until vegetables are tender. Serve with grated cheese, tortilla chips, and sour cream. A really easy recipe to cut in half if you are only serving up to 4 people.

*a lot of times I have this meal as a backup plan so I might not have these ingredients on hand so sometimes these ingredients are omitted. The soup is just as good without them, just more healthy with the extra veggies!

Schuyler's Sloppy Joes

I got this recipe from my college roommate, and it's one of Jake's very favorite things that I make. Good thing, because they are so easy! Thanks Schoop!

1 lb ground beef

1 T. dried minced onion

2 T. chopped celery

1 can tomato soup

2 T. Worchestershire sauce

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1 T. prepared mustard

1/4 cup ketchup

1/4 cup brown sugar.

Brown beef and onion and drain fat. Mix the rest of the ingredients and cook until hot. Serve on a bun.

Baked Potatoes, the fast method

I have had a lot of bad luck with baking potatoes. I know, how hard can it be? Stick them in the oven for an hour and you're done. But mine always came out hard as rocks in the middle, no matter what the size or how many times I poked them. SO frustrating after you've been waiting an hour+ for them. So I did a little homework and put together a couple of tips from random people on allrecipes.com and came up with this method. Cuts baking time in half and every time I've done it this way, they have turned out great! This is also handy if your main dish requires some time in the oven, too. Then your entree and potatoes cook together for the last 20 minutes of entree cooking time.

*I have only tried this with 3-8 potatoes at a time. Cooking times may be different if you need to make more

• Wash and scrub potatoes
• Poke with a fork several times, turn on oven to 375 degrees.
• Microwave potatoes for 10 minutes, turning potatoes after 5 minutes
• Remove, sprinkle with your favorite seasoning or kosher salt, cover with foil
• Bake in oven for an additional 20 minutes

Homemade Double Chocolate Oreos

Cookies:

1 pkg Devils Food cake mix

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened to room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 cup chocolate chips

Beat half of cake mix with butter, vanilla, and eggs on medium until smooth. Stir in remaining mix and chips. Dough will be very dry at first, so you may need to hand-mix it. Drop quarter-sized balls on ungreased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, the less the better if you want softer cookies. Cool on sheet for 1 minute then transfer to cooling rack. Cool completely.

Cream cheese filling:

1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature

8 oz cream cheese, softened

3/4 - 1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Cream butter and add cream cheese and vanilla. Mix well. Gradually add sugar until you reach the desired consistency and flavor.

*You might even be able to get away with halfing this filling recipe and will still have enough for 1 batch of cookies.

To assemble the cookies, add about a tablespoon of filling into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie similar in size on top of the filling. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream.

Chicken Divan

4 large chicken breasts

2 packages frozen broccoli

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon curry powder

Simmer chicken until tender and cool. Cook broccoli according to directions on package and cool. Cut chicken and broccoli into serving pieces and place in a large 9x13 dish. Mix soup with mayonnaise, cheese, lemon juice and curry powder. Pour over chicken and broccoli. Cover with foil and bake 1 hour at 350 until bubbly.